First time in almost 6 years...

[Mincal81]

First time in almost 6 years of keeping aquariums, I've had ich show up . Was headed in to feed my son's clown fish yesterday, and noticed one of the pair hanging back by the heater. Usually they both come right up front and eagerly swim around like " Hey , a**hole we're starving! ". So I knew something was up. Sat there and observed it for a minute and I saw the shimmy move teamed with a rub against the heater cord. Finally the clown swam forward and I saw the spots. After some quick research through a bazillion and one ridding ich solutions, I opted for dosing the tank with Ich-x. Hikari products have always been good to me and after reading reviews on it, it seemed like a solid choice.
Dosed the tank yesterday, and little buddy was looking better already this morning. Did a one third water change which the snails and green emerald crab were like " oh my God, what's happening?!? It's the Covid-19! ". ( They always freak a little during water changes ). So I've got the second dosing in progress and have quite figured out if I'm going to do this for 4 days or 5. It's not a huge tank. 29 gallon nano, so the water changes go pretty fast.

Curious how others out there deal with ich? Any tips, tricks, or go to solutions that have shown consistency appreciated. Ich seems to be a not if but when kind of issue.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Generally ich cannot be cured in a display tank as the inverts do not tolerate the treatment that cures ich. I will admit, I have never used regular market products for ich. I have always done treatments in my QT. Now, once, like 16yrs ago, I did not qt some clown gobies and they got ich in my 210g display. Getting them out was not an option. So, I had to hope that them and the clowns and tang would survive. They all did. Had the tang for 14 years and the clowns were sold later as a breeding pair. The yellow clowns lasted 3 years till the female got egg bound and died.

The moral of the story is, to cure ich you would need to go fallow in the tank for 76 days or so and treat the fish in a hospital tank with either copper (I have never used), or formalin, or other similar products.

However, if you get the fish through the worst in the DT, fish can be healthy for years to come.

 

[YankeeTankee]

Post pics in fish disease section to confirm ich, if it is and you can QT then its copper power and going fallow.

If you cannot QT and ich does not resolve, I have heard of people treating DTs but only if they dont have inverts/corals or can remove them in which case you would not be doing this as you'd QT the fish. Are you fish only, I see you mentioned a crab, corals?

 

[Mincal81]

I have two snails and a green emerald, no corals. From my understanding, and why I chose the ich x is because it's not a copper based product and not as hard on invertebrates.

 

[Brandon Smith]

You can research methods on ick management vs. ich eradication. I have treated ich in a reef aquarium, I always use a hospital tank myself. I keep the sponge of a sponge filter in my sump so I always have a cycle to help the process.

 

[Mincal81]

Day 4 since initial dosing. Fish are looking good and back to normal behavior. Snails and crab seem to be unaffected by the Ich-x , as they continue about their business like normal. Decided to do a five day dosing. Two more water changes and dosings to go and then back to observation mode.